Typically, in new building construction, electrical conduits and junction or device boxes are installed in various locations prior to ceilings, walls and other surfaces of the construction being finished by various other crafts than the electrical installers. Normally this means that, after the finishing materials are applied to the ceilings, walls and other surfaces, the electrical worker or workers must return and affix suitable outlets, electrical lighting fixtures or the like to each of the as yet unfinished electrical junction or device boxes.
Most, if not all, modern electrical building codes require that, prior to the issuance of a Certificate of occupancy, each of the exposed electrical junction or device boxes must be finished in a manner which serves to secure such electrical junction or device boxes and to prevent contact with otherwise potentially live electrical conduits.
In many instances, especially when one is dealing with ceiling mounted electrical junction or device boxes, for one reason or another, the electrical fixture and or device which is to be affixed may not be immediately available, or indeed, the electrical junction or device box may have been provided for a future, as yet unspecified, use.
In the aforementioned situations, typically the as yet unused electrical junction or device is fitted with a suitable cover plate which is normally secured in place using two screws which serve to join the cover plate to the surface of the electrical junction or device in such manner as to present a neat appearance and to forestall any possible contact with otherwise potentially live electrical conduits. In many instances, with modern high ceilings, an electrical junction or device box may have been provided in a remote high ceilinged location where the electrical junction or device box is intended to be utilized for an electric fixture which is not as yet available and possibly will not become available until sometime in the future. In such situations and where it is necessary in order to meet electrical building codes to suitably cover the exposed remote electrical junction or device box, it is often necessary to spend a large amount of effort, sometimes to the extent of having to construct a scaffolding, merely to install a cover plate over an exposed electrical junction or device box so that no electrical code violation exists.
The cost of doing so is exorbitant and often otherwise unwarranted, Therefore, there is a need for an alternative system and means for covering an electrical junction or device box which is not easily accessible in a manner which meets prevailing electrical codes.
The applicant is not aware of the existence of any prior art device which is available to the art which incorporates all of the essential features of the means of attachment of standard electrical junction or device box cover plate of the present invention.